Gamewell fire alarm

[As seen in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts, earlier this year. Click for a larger view.]

This old fire alarm was on duty last spring. I hope it’s on duty still. Click for the larger view to get a better look at the logo, which recalls that of the IBEW. (See below.) You might be able to make out the words Fire Alarm Station and The Gamewell Co. Newton Mass., below the 655.

Though no longer based in Newton, the Gamewell Co. is still in business as Gamewell-FCI.

[FCI: Fire Control Instruments.]

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December 16: Gamewell forwarded my query to Gary Spohn, an expert on old Gamewell equipment. Gary tells me that this style of box is a “1924 style,” a design patented in that year. This box was made, he says, between 1938 and 1950. A look at the innards would reveal more.

Thank you, Gary.

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December 16: Gary dates the first version of the Gamewell logo to 1879. The first IBEW logo appeared in 1891. So it would appear that it is the IBEW logo that recalls the Gamewell logo.

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March 2024: Here’s a Gamewell alarm in a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt.